Monday, March 4, 2013

Spent the night over at my cousin's house over the weekend and hit him up to the Super Sentai series. I already covered this in my Tokusatsu and Kaiju post but for those of you who don't know, Super Sentai is what our Power Rangers shows are adapted from. We went online and found episodes of Gokaigers subbed, so we ended up watching the show until about 5 in the A.M.

For the uninitiated, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaigers is the 35th Anniversary season of the Super Sentai show and features a band of Space Pirates who are on the hunt for the greatest treasure in the universe. The show actually starts off with a massive war between all previous 34 Super Sentai teams and an invading alien force (Known as the Legendary War). All of them (around 199 Rangers) combine their powers and push back the invading army, resulting in their power being spread across the universe. Fast forward, we see a pirate ship headed towards Earth with a group of five Space Pirates searching for the greatest treasure in the universe. These pirates have a treasure chest filled with "Ranger Keys" which are inserted into their cellphone morphers that allow them to change into any of the previous Super Sentai.

I won't get too much into the story because I'm only on the 12th episode myself and would rather see how it plays out. I would definitely recommend this season for anyone who is a fan of Super Sentai, Power Rangers, or just Tokusatsu in general. If you're specifically a Power Rangers fan, this is a great season to start on because you will be introduced to many of the previous Super Sentai that we never got here. (We're only on the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers here, but they're on the 37th season of Super Sentai in Japan)

The Super Sentai also has a much better story than our Power Rangers show, with better character development and even shows a little bit of blood despite being a kids show. You'll even see alien invaders killing civilians sometimes. I think this type of violence, although not overly gory or excessive, is important to show kids. I grew up on the Power Rangers show and sometimes would forget you could get injured in fight. Sometimes you just think the worst will happen is some sparks will fly off of you and everything will be fine at the end of the day. If you don't show children what results from violence, you're really just creating a false reality for these kids that violence could have no dire consequences.

Do a quick search online and you will no doubt find a site that will stream this amazing show. I urge every one of you to check out this season of the show. I am so captivated by this series, I would recommend it to people of all ages. If you want to write it off as just as kid's show, that's your loss. I think anyone who misses out of this season will never understand what they're missing out on.